Planet Fitness tells woman her body intimidates other members

A California woman was excited to get back in shape after recovering from a car accident, however her exercise time was cut short when she was stopped by a Planet Fitness employee.

Tiffany Austin explained that the staff member approached her and said, “excuse me we’ve had some complaints you’re intimidating people with your toned body. So can you put on a shirt?”

According to KTVU, Austin was wearing a tank top that showed her stomach, along with capri pants. Austin noted that she didn’t understand what was wrong with the outfit.

Although she agreed to wear the shirt that was offered by the gym, another staff member approached Austin and made another comment about her body. Austin was furious; she asked for a refund and left.

Planet Fitness has a policy that bans what they call “gymtimidation”, which is explained by their website as allowing members to get into shape without being “subjected to the hardcore look-at-me attitude that exists in too many gyms”.

“In a lot of ways I think what Planet Fitness is doing is a positive thing. They obviously need to iron out some of these issues but sport in the U.S. is by nature is discriminatory too, it is selective and it is elite,” said Derek Van Reheenen, director of the Athletic Studies Center at UC Berkeley.

A Planet Fitness member explained that she felt that it was unfair to show off your body because it can make other members feel bad about theirs.

Yahoo! News noted that some people do think the Planet Fitness policies are too much sometimes. In November 2006, Albert Argibay was removed from the gym for breaking the gym’s rule of “no grunting”. Argibay argued that he was just breathing heavily.

Austin is no longer a member at Planet Fitness and left the gym with feelings of intimidation and harassment.